Ive bought several bags of peat free compost (growmoor multi purpose) and used it in containers where it has been a disaster.
That really does surprise me & makes me feel a bit of an idiot. Growmoor Peat-Free (with added seaweed) is the best we've used since the old New Horizon (before Westland stole the name). This is an example of the produce I've grown in it (and yes the cucumbers are supposed to be mini).
These are the hanging baskets my wife has made with it.
Most of the stuff we used was last year's stock which we bought for £2.99 for 50L but this year's (which we've used some of) was £4.99, both from Home Bargains. I hope it's not this year's stock that's the issue.
Edit: This is the stuff
Clay soil - Cheshire/Derbyshire border. I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
To be honest @VictorMeldrew I think the companies are playing catch up with the sudden rise in compost demand, and are selling composted stuff that is really not ready for use. It seems to be not fully treated, so prone to weeds, and lumpy/woody so not good for young plants and water retention. 😕
Water retention is the only real issue we've had with it, although I've seen worse. But I'm making a large batch of home-made this year (and won't be spreading it around the beds as in previous years) so I'll be doing a 50:50 mix next year
Clay soil - Cheshire/Derbyshire border. I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
Sylviagrow might be good @Loxley , but our nearest stockest (20 miles) doesn't keep it ( Dobbies, go figure ) and it is twice the price of any of the available locally brands, so right there has priced itself out of the question. As for excuses I don't have acres of land to use to make compost! BTW Loxley if you are making your own, why are you buying?
I'm not making my own, although I do make my own 'homebrew John Innes no.3' using MPC (and any old MPC will do here), garden soil, and sometimes a bit of sand. TBH it seemsjust as good as JI3 for my purposes. I have never made my own compost.
I have 7 Sylvagrow stockists within 20 minutes of me, one within a couple of miles. It's £7.99 for a 50l bag which is fine. If your local GC doesn't stock it, speak to the manager. Otherwise it can be ordered online.
Obviously if you need MPC in a rush and can't find Sylvagrow or similar high quality peat-free, just get what you can find that works for you, but if nobody's asking for these products at local GCs, they won't appear on the shelves.
When I say 'no excuses' I mean there is no excuse for horticulture to essentially go completely peat free - I accept it's not 100% possible to go 100% peat free for 100% of people, right now.
"What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbour".
I suspect your Nottinghamshire Sylvagrow stockists include the nearest ones to me @Loxley.
I'll keep doing the best I can with what I can get locally. Not much point in bemoaning the phasing-out of peat for horticulture but discussing the alternatives and other people's approaches I think is useful.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
I’ve had chemical smelling compost, I think it may be a disinfectant they use. Doesn’t seem to make any difference to it’s performance.
I would have thought that the amount of compost one makes is relative to their garden?
Small garden, small amount of compost but enough for the small garden.
Not necessarily, It depends on what's in your garden? Mine has few flowers beds in it - but lots of trees and large shrubs planted by previous owners. They don't produce a massive amount of compostable material. Also how much room you have for compost bins. A bigger garden does not necessarily mean proportionately more compost bins (as a room does not necessarily mean more room for a lot more furniture round the periphery). But for me the main thing is that I grow a lot of vegetables in pots. At the moment I have an excessive number of tomatoes, aubergines, peppers, chillies, tomatillos, courgettes, cucumbers, pumpkin and other squash in pots. No room to put in the ground becuse of aforementioned shrubs and also half of my garden is in shade.
My closest garden centre only sells peat free now. It's not cheap, though. Urban garden centre...
Encouraging pollinators aside, I am really peeved by the wasp/bee nest in the compost bin. I daren't really put anything in the one next to it either, now. I just noticed that I have a wasp's nest in some wood in the balcony
This same topic comes up every few weeks now. @ the OP: Mix some manure, green kitchen waste, paper and cardboard with it, work with it and leave until next year then it'll be ready by Spring. I think anyone who says they don't have room for a composter should post some pics of their gardens. If you have a garden at all, you have room. There can't be many people who don't have the 2 foot square needed for a compost bin, if you really don't then why did you plan you garden so badly? A compost bin is part of any basic, decent and proper garden. It's like saying 'I can't get in my garden' because you forgot to leave space to walk. You wouldn't sit there and say you are no longer going in the garden, you would make a path. You do realise you can make compost underground? Simply dig a hole and sling everything in. In maybe 6 months time there will be ready to use compost in there.
It's sad that the modern gardener often turns their noses up at composting, they never used to. It was all part n parcel of gardening.
I live in a very bad soil area, yet I've had a bumper crop this year on homemade compost and it cost nothing. The bin was free from FB marketplace, the ingredients came from ours and other peoples waste. Freecycle is also a good source.
Is homemade actually better than bought? I set out to find out scientifically by buying a testing kit and yes, my own actually had more vital nutrients in it.
I no longer put the waste paper bin out as it all goes into compost. The black bin has no food waste in it, mainly only plastics. The garden waste bin was never used once, it's a stupid idea, was and still is a complete waste of tax payers money.
There are no end of guides around to read or watch on making compost, the only thing I really don't believe is the claim that you can make good compost in 6 weeks. I think it takes a min of 6 months and as someone pointed out that's maybe one of the reasons you're buying bags of rubbish, it's made too quickly. You can actually still see the raw material in there and that isn't how it should be.
The other reason is it is recycled rubbish, but I don't believe there is enough 'green' stuff in there (if any) and that's mainly poo and grass.
If you think about it, you're actually feeding a very poor system which is costing you more money than you realise. You're paying your Council taxes to have your usable ingredients removed. The compost producers then take that from the Council, make it into crap compost substitute and you then buy it back off them! Try to grow plants in it and get rubbish plants. They're making mugs of you. Get smart, cut out the middle men.
I'm presuming you garden for the pleasure of it? There is pleasure in making compost too, especially whilst sticking two fingers up at this stupid system. Personally opening up my new heap in Spring and putting it to good use is as good as seeing a new flower open.
The garden waste bin was never used once, it's a stupid idea, was and still is a complete waste of tax payers money.
I agree with much of what you say about composting Mike but I'm left wondering what you do with all the coarse stuff.
We have quite a large garden with many sizeable shrubs / trees. I've been severely pruning many of them and even bought a new shredder/chipper to reduce the volume of the woody spoil. The leafy stuff & smaller branches are fed into my smaller shredder which makes nice compostable material but the larger stuff goes into the chipper and once reduced down then goes into the garden-waste bin. The last pruning project produced so much chipped material that we had to hold it back in several large aggregate bags between bin collections.
Yes we could have spread it over the beds as mulch but we didn't want this woody (& coniferous) material on them. Yes we could have loaded it into the motor and driven 10 miles to the refuse centre. But for this job we were really grateful for the green bin collection.
Unfortunately most domestic composting doesn't create enough heat to kill off pernicious weed roots & seeds. We have quite a good sizeable 2 bay heap but even with that my spring & early summer grass cuttings go in the green bin because there are so many dandelion heads hoovered up by the mower and I don't want that material on my beds or in my pots.
Considering much of my taxes & rates are used to provide services for other people which we don't use, I'll ****** well get the most use out of this one
Clay soil - Cheshire/Derbyshire border. I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
I only put the stuff that I can't compost at home in my council green bin - pernicious weed roots, branches too thick to go through my shredder, that sort of thing. It should be OK shredded and composted on a commercial scale if they do it properly so that it gets very hot and for long enough.
I think weeds coming up where I've used homemade compost (including in pots and seed trays) is a relatively small price to pay, but I do need to get better at recognising them when they're tiny. Wouldn't it be great if seed companies put a series of pictures on the packet showing what the seedlings look like at different stages, just seed leaves, first true leaves, and then a bit further on? Maybe something to suggest next time there are students on here looking for a design project to help gardeners.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
Posts
That really does surprise me & makes me feel a bit of an idiot. Growmoor Peat-Free (with added seaweed) is the best we've used since the old New Horizon (before Westland stole the name). This is an example of the produce I've grown in it (and yes the cucumbers are supposed to be mini).
These are the hanging baskets my wife has made with it.
Most of the stuff we used was last year's stock which we bought for £2.99 for 50L but this year's (which we've used some of) was £4.99, both from Home Bargains. I hope it's not this year's stock that's the issue.
Edit: This is the stuff
I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful
I have 7 Sylvagrow stockists within 20 minutes of me, one within a couple of miles. It's £7.99 for a 50l bag which is fine. If your local GC doesn't stock it, speak to the manager. Otherwise it can be ordered online.
Obviously if you need MPC in a rush and can't find Sylvagrow or similar high quality peat-free, just get what you can find that works for you, but if nobody's asking for these products at local GCs, they won't appear on the shelves.
When I say 'no excuses' I mean there is no excuse for horticulture to essentially go completely peat free - I accept it's not 100% possible to go 100% peat free for 100% of people, right now.
I wish I had room to make my own compost, at least I would know what went into it.
My closest garden centre only sells peat free now. It's not cheap, though. Urban garden centre...
Encouraging pollinators aside, I am really peeved by the wasp/bee nest in the compost bin. I daren't really put anything in the one next to it either, now. I just noticed that I have a wasp's nest in some wood in the balcony
I think anyone who says they don't have room for a composter should post some pics of their gardens. If you have a garden at all, you have room.
There can't be many people who don't have the 2 foot square needed for a compost bin, if you really don't then why did you plan you garden so badly? A compost bin is part of any basic, decent and proper garden. It's like saying 'I can't get in my garden' because you forgot to leave space to walk.
You wouldn't sit there and say you are no longer going in the garden, you would make a path.
You do realise you can make compost underground? Simply dig a hole and sling everything in. In maybe 6 months time there will be ready to use compost in there.
It's sad that the modern gardener often turns their noses up at composting, they never used to. It was all part n parcel of gardening.
I live in a very bad soil area, yet I've had a bumper crop this year on homemade compost and it cost nothing. The bin was free from FB marketplace, the ingredients came from ours and other peoples waste.
Freecycle is also a good source.
Is homemade actually better than bought? I set out to find out scientifically by buying a testing kit and yes, my own actually had more vital nutrients in it.
I no longer put the waste paper bin out as it all goes into compost. The black bin has no food waste in it, mainly only plastics.
The garden waste bin was never used once, it's a stupid idea, was and still is a complete waste of tax payers money.
There are no end of guides around to read or watch on making compost, the only thing I really don't believe is the claim that you can make good compost in 6 weeks. I think it takes a min of 6 months and as someone pointed out that's maybe one of the reasons you're buying bags of rubbish, it's made too quickly. You can actually still see the raw material in there and that isn't how it should be.
The other reason is it is recycled rubbish, but I don't believe there is enough 'green' stuff in there (if any) and that's mainly poo and grass.
If you think about it, you're actually feeding a very poor system which is costing you more money than you realise. You're paying your Council taxes to have your usable ingredients removed. The compost producers then take that from the Council, make it into crap compost substitute and you then buy it back off them! Try to grow plants in it and get rubbish plants. They're making mugs of you. Get smart, cut out the middle men.
I'm presuming you garden for the pleasure of it? There is pleasure in making compost too, especially whilst sticking two fingers up at this stupid system.
Personally opening up my new heap in Spring and putting it to good use is as good as seeing a new flower open.
I agree with much of what you say about composting Mike but I'm left wondering what you do with all the coarse stuff.
We have quite a large garden with many sizeable shrubs / trees. I've been severely pruning many of them and even bought a new shredder/chipper to reduce the volume of the woody spoil. The leafy stuff & smaller branches are fed into my smaller shredder which makes nice compostable material but the larger stuff goes into the chipper and once reduced down then goes into the garden-waste bin. The last pruning project produced so much chipped material that we had to hold it back in several large aggregate bags between bin collections.
Yes we could have spread it over the beds as mulch but we didn't want this woody (& coniferous) material on them. Yes we could have loaded it into the motor and driven 10 miles to the refuse centre. But for this job we were really grateful for the green bin collection.
Unfortunately most domestic composting doesn't create enough heat to kill off pernicious weed roots & seeds. We have quite a good sizeable 2 bay heap but even with that my spring & early summer grass cuttings go in the green bin because there are so many dandelion heads hoovered up by the mower and I don't want that material on my beds or in my pots.
Considering much of my taxes & rates are used to provide services for other people which we don't use, I'll ****** well get the most use out of this one
I play with plants and soil and sometimes it's successful